CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Northern Illinois University women's basketball team shot 44 percent from the field in the first half to build a 34-24 halftime lead Wednesday in the Mid-American Conference Championship quarterfinals at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, but the Cardinals rallied in the fourth quarter to come away with a 60-54 win.

"You have to give a lot of credit to Ball State, especially in the second half," said head coach Lisa Carlsen. "They did a great job of being disruptive on defense and their full court press turned us over and was the difference in the ballgame."

Junior forward A'Jah Davis (DeKalb, Ill./Montverde Academy [Fla.]) led all players in the game with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Davis made 6-of-7 shots from the field and was 5-for-6 at the free throw line. It was her 24th double-double of the season. Jayden Marable (Bolingbrook, Ill./Bolingbrook) had 14 points and four rebounds. Janae Poisson (Matteson, Ill./Marian Catholic) added 13 points and five rebounds.

NIU (14-15) opened the game on an 8-3 run in the first 2:07, getting threes from Poisson and Nia Ahart (Detroit, Mich./Colgate). Ball State came back to take a 9-8 three on a Thelma Dis Agustsdottir three-pointer with 6:54 left in the first quarter. NIU would hold the Cardinals to just one field goal for the remainder of the quarter. An Ahart three put the Huskies up 11-9 at the 6:34 mark and sparked a 16-2 run to close the period. Marable had five points in that stretch as NIU took a 24-11 lead.

"We played together and used momentum in our favor," said Poisson. "We played really good defense to power our offense."

Poisson extended the Huskies' lead to 17 early in the second, scoring NIU's first five points to make the score 29-12 with 8:39 left in the half. Ball State then went on a 9-0 run as back-to-back Estel Puiggros threes cut the Huskies' lead to eight, 29-21, at the 6:01 mark. Poisson knocked down her third three-pointer of the half on NIU's next possession to put the Huskies up 11, 32-21. The Huskies shot 44.4 percent from the field in the first half, and 50 percent from the three-point line, to take a 34-24 halftime advantage.

The Huskies grew the lead to 15 on a Marable three-point play at the 8:50 mark that made the score 39-24. Ball State used a 9-2 run midway through the third quarter to get within seven, 42-35, on an Ally Becki layup at the 3:54 mark. Becki made a three with 1:19 left and Chyna Latimer added a layup in the final minute to cut NIU's lead to four, 44-40, going into the fourth quarter.

Ball State (19-11) took its first lead since the first quarter with 8:29 to go in the game, as a Becki three-pointer and a pair of Latimer free throws put the Cardinals ahead 45-44. NIU then traded baskets with Ball State, with Davis and Mikayla Brandon (Bourbonnais, Ill./Bradley-Bourbonnais) combining for six NIU points to keep the deficit at one 53-52 with 2:44 remaining.   The Cardinals got back-to-back layups from Puiggros and Sydney Freeman to go up by five, 57-52, with 0:54 to go in the game. NIU was able to get as close as three, but Ball State made its free throws down the stretch to come away with the six-point win.

NIU finished the game shooting 41.2 percent from the field, but just 6-for-20 from the three-point line. The Huskies held Ball State to 35.1 percent shooting and outrebounded the Cardinals 38-31. Ball State scored 19 points off 19 NIU turnovers. Becki led the Cardinals with 15 points.

"It's not often that you lose your best player and you can continue to play winning basketball," Carlsen said when reflecting on NIU's season postgame. "I'll always be proud of this group for their resiliency. The experience for someone like Jayden was something that's just going to propel her to be that much better of a player. A'Jah absolutely accepted the challenge of being ever more of the focal point of what we're trying to do. I'm excited to see what she's going to do as continues to grow as a player."

—NIU—